But Mike Elleman, a leading missile expert, claims despite the missile’s size it still probably couldn’t send a heavy nuclear warhead as far as the US’s east coast.

In a detailed assessment for 38 North, a program of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins SAIS, Elleman states when North Korea demonstrated the 8,000-mile range of the Hwasong-15 and its other long-range missiles, they “likely carried very small payloads.”

#NorthKorea‘s Hwasong-15 ICBM flight test appears to be another step forward in its ballistic missile program. @EllemanIISS compares performance to and changes since the two Hwasong-14 tests from July in latest assessment: https://t.co/iJEAW6NddV